Russia won its first gold medal of the 2014 Winter Games Sunday night in a new team figure-skating competition, showing it has deepened its talent pool in the decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union—and that it can score an important victory at its own Olympics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on hand to soak in the win, cheering from the stands for 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya, a rising star who swept the women's singles portion of the team event.

The Olympics began with disappointment for the host country over the weekend, with missed opportunities in the biathlon and skiathlon. But the Russians found their footing Sunday afternoon, first with a bronze medal in speedskating, then more bronzes in luge and biathlon and, finally, gold in a sport in which it has trailed other countries over the past two decades.

At the Iceberg Skating Palace on Sunday night, Russia soundly defeated skaters from Canada and the U.S. in the team event, in which 10 countries fielded one man, one woman, a pair and an ice-dance team (plus substitutions) to compete for a medal.

The Russian team featured one of the nation's most beloved athletes, as well as some emerging talent. Four-time Olympian Yevgeny Plushenko, a national hero here, dazzled a rapt audience with a performance that was both restrained and stunning. It was just enough for him to win in a field that lacked top rivals such as Canada's Patrick Chan and Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu. (The latter beat Plushenko in the team short program.)

Plushenko was followed by Lipnitskaya, the 15-year-old rising star who racked up points in a dramatic free-skate program, set to "Schindler's List," jumping and twisting and stretching her body like a pretzel into impossible-looking spins.

Lipnitskaya's choreography put her youthful flexibility to Russia's advantage. Her difficult Biellmann spin—in which a skater pulls a foot behind the back and directly up overhead, rotating on the standing leg—built points fast.

Russia also turned in strong showings in the pairs-skating portion of the program—a discipline it has long dominated—as well as in ice dance, in which Elena Ilynkh and Nikita Katsalapov won a standing ovation from an enthused crowd by skating to—what else?—"Swan Lake."

As the 10-member team mounted the gold-medal podium, the crowd inside the Iceberg Palace waved flags and chanted, "Rossiya, Rossiya."

"It's a great victory for us, and it's the first time I'm seeing something like this with my own eyes," said Milena Abramyan, a 23-year-old IT support worker from nearby Krasnodar, who waved a flag from the nosebleed section and said she was there because "Plushenko is a legend."

"I'm proud that Russia won—that we proved we're the best," she said.

The Russian skaters said they were inspired by the fans, but after the competition the crowd was anything but wild. The stands began emptying before the flower ceremony honored the athletes.

Meanwhile in downtown Sochi, a crowd of several hundred at a public viewing site initially didn't notice the gold-medal performance; a live band distracted attention from the big screen. when the skating victory was announced, light applause and a few whistles accompanied a small, regularly scheduled fireworks show. Most of the crowd watched the fireworks in silence, some of them aiming their mobile phones at the sky to document the moment.

Svetlana Nesterenko, who came with colleagues from the southern city of Stavropol, stood quietly as she watched the screen, but said she was very excited. "The only thing I could compare it to would be something like having a baby. Everything else pales in comparison to the fact that everyone is together," she said. "It's super."

The crowd thinned quickly, with few remaining when Putin briefly appeared on the big screens before his signal cut out.

Canada finished a distant second to Russia in the team skating event, with strong performances by ice-dance pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the free program in ice dance, and Gracie Gold finished second in the women's competition, solidifying a bronze medal.

Figure skating has long been intensely popular in Russia, and for years the Soviet Union dominated international competitions. But the once powerful state program was severely weakened after the Soviet breakup. More than 20 years later, Russian figure skating is on the verge of a "powerful revival," said Plushenko's coach, Alexei Mishin, in the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

The country's figure-skating leaders have gotten better at pinpointing talent in each skating discipline, Mishin said, and there is increased financing for major competitions, as well as for shows to draw public interest. He characterized Russia's victory on Sunday as a step toward Russia regaining the stature it enjoyed internationally for decades.

Sunday's medals followed two early disappointments for Russia. In the biathlon, Anton Shipulin and Evgeny Ustyugov, both of whom won medals in 2010, finished empty-handed on Saturday in the men's 10k sprint.

Russia also missed a bronze in men's cross-country skiing by a 10th of a second on Sunday when Maxim Vylegzhanin came in fourth behind Norway's Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Vylegzhanin nearly overtook Sundby at the finish line but fell just short, drawing a groan from the crowd. Russia unsuccessfully protested the results.

Not surprised at all that he delivered. Still haven't seen his performance and can't wait but none of the stations are showing/have shown it. One of the great figure Skaters of our time. Where is Brutuskaya?

While the Russian gold medal in team figure skating I am sure is very well deserved, it just showed how poorly has been NBC's coverage. Twice they showed us U.S. skaters crush their competitors and yet the U.S. team just managed a third place. What NBC showed was totally inconsistent with the results they kept reporting.

I don't care for the Olympics much. Though I admire the athletes and their accomplishments the political grandstanding, the business marketing and the money that pours into the games makes it all seem like a fad that disappears quickly.

Americans should be given the option to watch Canadian coverage, no US network could compete with the intelligent explanation of each event and coverage of all competitors in the event. The bonus is witnessing all medal ceremonies no matter which country wins.

Many years ago, around 1992, I was in Moscow during the winter Olympics. The lobby bar of the hotel where I was staying, I think it was the Aerostar that I think belonged to Aeroflot at the time, had three TVs tuned to three different sets of events, and even without sound they were a pleasure to follow.

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